Ahmadinejad to seek closer ties in visit to Egypt

Iranian president invited by President Morsi to visit Cairo, to discuss resuming of diplomatic relations between the countries.

Morsi and Ahmadinejad 370.
(photo credit:REUTERS/Handout)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Egypt in
February and discuss the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two
countries with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Morsi, semi-official
Iranian news agency Fars reported on Friday.

Ahmadinejad was invited by Morsi to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Cairo on February 7.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met with Morsi in Cairo to discuss improving the ties between the two countries, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the civil war in Syria.

Salehi
said that the tensions were being orchestrated by the Western media and
invited Morsi to Iran on behalf of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile last week, Morsi’s political adviser Issam al-Haddad held a secret meeting
with Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, to learn how
to control and take over the Egypt’s security forces, according to a
report in Wednesday’s edition of the Egyptian paper Al-Masry al-Youm.

Diplomatic
relations between Cairo and Tehran broke down immediately after Iran's 1979 Islamic
revolution due to Egypt's support for the overthrown Shah and its peace
agreement with Israel.

However, the relationship could be thawing
after Morsi visited Tehran in August for the Non-Aligned Movement
conference, marking the first such visit by an Egyptian leader since
Iran's Islamic revolution.

Iran has been courting
stronger relations with Egypt, as well as Jordan, in order to extend
Tehran's influence in the Middle East.